Quantitative Methods in Physical Anthropology

Abstract

Physical anthropology is a discipline that studies aspects of human biology for the purpose of reaching an evolutionary understanding of our species. This puts topics of human biological diversity, heredity, and ancestry at the center of the majority of investigations. Debates in the early nineteenth century on these particular aspects furthered studies on human populations. The measurement of physical features became the means by which to do so and is now not only standard practice but is also necessary to quantify observed differences among people. Quantitative methods in physical anthropology began and developed in this context, but they obtained statistical methods from other disciplines that are fundamental to anthropological investigations today. Physical anthropology remains an interdisciplinary subject whose investigative methods are highly quantitative and whose studies continue to focus on aspects of our evolution.